Apparatus for desiccating eggs.



No. 677,902. Patented July 9, I90! w. o. STODDARD, m. APPARATUS FORDESICGATING EGGS.

' (Application filed Nov. 8, 1899.)

(lo Model.)

All.

WITNESSES: I INVENTOR WILLHA @STGDWARDJR.

ATTORNEY.

UNITED STATES PATENT J GFE CE.

WILLIAM 0. STODDARD, JR, OF MADISON, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE PUREFOOD COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR DES ICCATING EGGS.

SPECIFICATION forming' part of Letters Patent No. er /3e02, dated July9, 1901. Application filed November 8,1899. Serial No. 786,246. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM O. STODDARI), J r., a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Madison, in the county of Morris and State of NewJersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Plants forDesiceating Eggs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and to letters ofreference marked thereon, which forms a part of this specification.

This invention has reference to a novel plant for the desiccating ofeggs and other substances with a view to the prevention of the action ofthe causes of deterioration and decomposition of the egg-matter'or thelike.

My invention therefore has for its primary object a novel arrangementand combination of desiccating apparatus, extracting device forextracting the moisture from the ordinary air used in the process ofdesiccating the eggs and other substances, an air-drier, and air-forcingapparatus or blower, all combined to produce a novel plant in whichegg-matter or the like is treated to successfully deprive such viscid orglutinous material as the batter of eggs made by beating together theyolks and whites of eggs or the whites of eggs or the yolks of eggs orother similar material of its watery particles and reduce the same to afine powder or meal, ready for use, at a low cost of manufacture and inthe best form of preservation and transportation.

It is well known that solubility of desiccated egg is'lost unless theproduct is substantially unchanged from its normal conditions in theshell. Successful desiccation must therefore be performed prior to anyfirst change of the egg-matter in the shell, and when the egg-batter istreated for desiccation several conditions of the atmosphere as tomoisture or dryness, purity or impurity, must be observed to produce agood and healthful quality of the product.

One of the main purposes of my invention is to treat the egg-batter orother like material on a revolving drum to a blast of air which isperfectly pure and free from the moisture found in humid air with a viewof providing a novel plant comprising all the apparatus and devices tobe hereinafter fully set forth and which go to make up the novelfeatures of my present invention.

The arrangement of the apparatus and devices to be hereinafter describedis very simple and must be arranged to fully purify and thoroughly drythe air to be forced around a revolving drum, upon the surface of whichthe egg-batter or other like material to be desiccated is delivered tobe dried thereon and finally scraped off as the finished and usefulproduct ready for its various uses or to be stored away for futurepurposes with out deterioration.

The plant hereinafter more fully described permits the desiccation ofthe yolks or the whites of eggs separately or together without change ofthe natural quality or composition of the egg-matter and produces aproduct of a uniform, soluble, and flaky character.

It is a well-known fact that the conditions of the atmosphere as tohumidity varying from day to day affect the egg product as to quantityand quality, and for this reason it becomes necessary to construct thenovel desiccating plant forming the gist of this invention;

The invention is clearly illustrated in the accompanying drawing, inwhich I have illustrated the most complete arrangement of the apparatusand devices comprising my novel plant for the desiccation of eggs or thelike.

Insaid drawing, a indicates an egg-breaker, and b a mixer of anysuitable construction, the mixer 12 being connected with said breaker orsubstantially in the manner illustrated.

The coating-tray is indicated by the reference-letter c and is arrangedupon a support 6, provided with a suitable arrangement of scraper orscrapers e, against the surface d of a large drum or wheel at. Arrangedbeneath said scraper or scrapers e is a flake or product receiving trayf. An air inlet or duct 9 is arranged to take in air from the top oroutside of the building in which the plant is placed.

h indicates an air drying and purifying device; vl, a steam-coil orother suitable heater;

i, an air-duct from said drier h to the heater 2', and i is an outletfrom the heater, which communicates with a blower j. The said blower isprovided with a wind-pipe 70, which communicates with asuitably-constructed wind-box I, inclosing a portion of the cylindricalsurface d of said drum (Z, and m is the final outlet or exhaust for theair saturated with the moisture extracted from the eggbatter or othermatter on the surface of the rotating drum.

As shown, the air drying and purifying ap paratns h is preferablyprovided with an arrangement of trays h, filled with layers 72 0f amoisture and impurity absorbing materialas calcium chlorid, sulfuricacid, or other absorbing material-and 7L and h4 are suitable drain-pipesleading from said apparatus h,

The drain-pipes of the steam-coil i are indicated by thereference-letter i The driving-gear is indicated in dotted outline, thearrangement herein shown being the one which I prefer; but said.driving-gear may be d f ent y a ranged, as w ll b ea ly evident, Itconsists, essentially, of a main drivg hef 1 b t 1 eun ha tp and belt 19for operating the driving-pulley d of the drum or wheel (I, On saidshaft 19 is a pulley p and belt 13 for driving a second countershaft 19and a and j are a pair of pulleys for belts o and 3'respectivelyoperating th breaker or and blower j.

The egg-batter may be extracted from the a mixer h into a pail 0 forcarrying it to the In order to combine the largest drying-sur-v face onwhich a thin filrn of egg-batter or the like is spread for desiccationand force a blast of dry and pure air over such film and to produce amost economical desiccating plant, the several apparatus and devices arearranged as follows: The eggs in the desired quantities are thrown intothe hopper a of the breaker upon a sieve-like partition a and brokenopen by the arms or wings 'cr of a shaft a operated from the pulley ctand belt of, hereinabove mentioned. The egg material then passes throughsaid sieve-like partition a upon an inclined bottom a and through anoutlet a into a suitable mixer 17, which may he of any approved design,where the material is agitated by the stirrers or blades b into the-formof a batter, to be drawn off into a pail o for pouring it into asuitable coatingtray 0, hereinabove mentioned. The said tray 0 is openon one side and when resting upon the support 6 can be forced into closecontact with the slowly-revolving surface d of the drum or wheel d, saidsurface (1 thereby practically forming the fourth side of the tray 0 toretain the egg-batter in said tray, but allowing the said slowly-movingsurface 61 to carry up a thin coating of the egg-batter, and therebycovering the entire surface of the drum or wheel 61 with this viscid orglutinous material. This drum or wheel is causedto revolve slowly in thedirection of the arrow, and the thin coating of egg-batter or othermaterial to be desiccated is thoroughly dried by passing through thewindbox Z in direct contact with a continuous supply of fresh, dry, andpure airblowing in the opposite direction to the movement of the drum orwheel d. The egg-batter or other material having thus passed from thepoint of its application in a'moist and viscid condition onto thesurface (1 of the drum, or wheel 61 thus becomes fully dried (with allmoisture particles removed and forced from the windbox Z into the outletm) to the point of contact with suitably-arranged andsuitably-constructed scrapers e, the said scrapersbeing forced againstthe face of the drum or wheel and the dried egg-matter is scraped offand falls in the formof flakes into the receiving or flake tray f, fromwhich the material is removed and placed in packages for storage andfurther use.

In order tha he operation of desicca ion may be successful to produce aperfect prodnot, it is absolutely essential that the air should beperfectly dry or as nearly so as possible, and, furthermore,allimpurities should be removed from the air. The apparatus is used tosupp y th s ai om so Poin Pr ferably bove the roofs of S11 rron ingbuildings, he a ingdrawn into the pipe gand the moisture andanyimpurities therein e t acte by mea s o the air d ying nd purifyingapparatus it, through which the air p ses in the direction of the arrowsover suitable trays h, filled with alcium eh orid 01' other suitableabsorbentsueh, for instance, as sul uri a d. the appa a s h may be madein the manner of a refrigerating apparatus for cooling the air down tofreezing. After the air has thus been thoroughly dried and purified itis drawn through the heater hereinabove mentioned, whereby the airhecomes heated to the proper degree which by a tua e periments has en ndmost effective for the proper desiccation of the egg or other material,The blowerj next forces this heated air into the wind-pipe Z0 and intothe box Z around the drum din the direction f the a rows in directcontact with th epp si e yneving egg-batter upon the surface (1 of thedrum, as previously stated, from which all moisture is extracted andforced th he wind rern the ind-hex .Z into the outlet m, the eggmaterial becoming dried upon the surface d and finally scraped off inits finished condition as a salable article for the market.

I am fully aware that several changes may be made in the various detailsof the construction of each separate apparatus without departing fromthe scope of my present invention. Hence I do not limit my invention tothe precise details of the construction of each apparatus as hereinshown and described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. In a plant forthe desiccation of eggs or other substances, the combination, with adrum or wheel and means for revolving the same, of a coating-trayconstructed with one side open and in contact with the surface of saiddrum or wheel, a wind-box inclosing a portion of the dryingsurface ofsaid drum or wheel, having an outlet and an inlet, a blower connectedwith said air-inlet to said windbox, a heater over which air is drawn bysaid blower and forced into said wind-box, and means arranged beneathsaid coating tray and in contact with the drying-surface of said drum orwheel, for removing the dried and desiccated material, substantially asand for the purposes set forth.

2. In a plant for the desiccation of eggs or other substances, thecombination, with a drum or wheel and means for revolving the same, of acoating-tray constructed with one side open and in contact with thesurface of said drum or wheel, a wind-box inclosing a portion of thedrying-surface of said drum or wheel, having an outlet and an inlet, ablower connected with said air-inlet to said windbox, a heater overwhich air is drawn by said blower and forced into said wind-box, and ascraping device arranged beneath said coating-tray and in contact withthe drying-surface of said drum or wheel, for removing the dried anddesiccated material, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

3. In a plant for the desiccation of eggs or other substances, thecombination, with a drum or wheel, and means for revolving the same, ofa coating-tray constructed with one side open and in contact with thesurface of said drum or wheel, a wind-box inclosing a portion of thedrying-surface of said drum or wheel, having an outlet and an inlet, ablower connected with said air-inlet to said windbox, an air drier andpurifier, a heater, a means of communication between said air drier andpurifier, heater and blower for drawing air into said drier and purifierand through said heater, and forcing it into said wind box, and meansarranged beneath said coating-tray and in contact with thedrying-surface of said drum or wheel, for removing the dried anddesiccated material, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

4. In a plant for the desiccation of eggs or other substances, thecombination, with a drum or wheel, and means for revolving the same, ofa coating-tray constructed with one side open and in contact with thesurface of said drum or wheel, a wind-box inclosing a portion of thedrying-surface of said drum or wheel, having an outlet and an inlet, ablower connected with said air-inlet to said windbox, an air drier andpurifier, a heater, a means of communication between said air drier andpurifier, heater and blower for drawing air into said drier and purifierand through said heater, and forcing it into said wind-box, and ascraping device arranged beneath said coating-tray and in contact withthe drying-surface of said drum or wheel, for removing the dried anddesiccated material, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

5. In a plant for the desiccation of eggs or other substances, thecombination, with a drum or wheel, means for revolving the same, andmeans for coating said drum with the material to be desiccated, of awind-box inclos-- ing a portion of said drum or wheel, a blowerconnected with said wind-box, an air drier and purifier, and a means ofcommunication between said drier and purifier and said blower fordrawing air through said drier and purifier and forcing it into saidwind-box, sub stantially as and for the purposes set forth;

6. In a plant for the desiccation of eggs or other substances, thecombination, with a drum or wheel, means for revolving the same, andmeans for coating said drum with the material to be desiccated, of awind-box inclosing a portion of said drum or wheel, a blower connectedwith said wind-box, an air drier and purifier, a heater, a means ofcommunication between said drier and purifier, heater and blower fordrawing air through the same, and forcing it into said wind-box,substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the invention set forth above I have hereuntoset my hand this 30th day of October, 1899.

WILLIAM O. STODDARD, JR.

Witnesses:

FREDK. O. FRAENTZEL, HARRY MARTIN.

